Sausage products and the like historically are typically extruded into a hollow continuous casing. The filled casings are then linked by mechanical means by twisting, wherein the filled casing is divided into a plurality of links separated by spaced twisted link points. The encased product is then cooked, and the casing material is then removed.
In more recent times, the meat emulsion is coextruded without a casing to have a thin layer of a hardenable coating substance on the outer surface thereof, which, when cured, creates a hardened coating to take the place of the casing material used in the conventional process. However, the sausage strand created by this coextrusion process is not durable enough to be linked by conventional mechanical linkers. There are string tying and clip machines available to create links in conventional encased sausage strands, but these devices require the string or clips to be removed, which adds expense and time to the process.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a method of linking a strand of uncased coextruded meat emulsion which will not damage the structural integrity of the extruded strand.
A further object of this invention is to provide a method of linking a strand of uncased coextruded meat emulsion wherein an edible material is used at link points on the extruded strand to create links in the strand.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a method of linking a strand of uncased coextruded meat emulsion wherein the linking material is structurally sufficient to constrict the extruded strand at link points, at elevated temperatures during a cooking cycle, but which can be removed by rinsing in water at reduced temperatures.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.